Swegreen's In-Store farming solution makes the Ica Maxi store in Solna the first of Stockholm's supermarkets to produce leafy green and herbs on a large scale inside the store themselves. The supermarket staff will be able to harvest fresh greens every day.
By installing Swegreen's in-store farm, Ica Maxi Supermarket in Solna takes local production to a whole new level by supplying leafy greens and herbs on-site in their own store. The farm is ready to supply its fresh produce in-store from the beginning of September.
"We want to be able to offer something unique to our customers, such as products that are not only climate-smart but also locally produced. With this facility, we are making a major investment in our fruit and vegetable department, which increasingly is becoming a more important part of our assortment," says Christofer Spångberg, Store Manager at Ica Maxi Solna.
Andreas Dahlin (Swegreen), Christofer Spångberg Store (Ica Maxi) and Anki Otterud (farm caretaker)
"We are very proud to work with the Ica Maxi Solna team on this new installation. Their commitment to the project, and to hyper-locally and climate smartly produce food, shows that this is a store that lies at the forefront of sustainability advocacy," says Swegreen's CEO Andreas Dahlin.
"With fresh vegetables produced in the store itself, we strengthen our offer and commitment to our customers. It feels fantastic and during the autumn, we will be able to provide our customers with several exciting surprises from our own farm," adds Christofer.
Sepehr Mousavi, CSO and Innovation Lead at Swegreen says: "Our innovation is a multi-disciplinary solution consisting of different technologies and niche sciences and knowhow. We are breaking new grounds and we are very proud of our collaboration with another great and leading store in ICA's chain."
Sepehr explains that Swegreen combines vertical cultivation techniques, clime-control systems, computer sciences, digitalization, AI, mechanical engineering and automation in an extensive way.
Quick farm facts
The 60m2 facility is located in the stores' fruit and vegetable department and has glass walls so that customers can observe and watch the cultivation process taking place. The farm will produce greens such as coriander, basil, dill, and parsley, and also different kinds of lettuces such as romaine and oakleaf.
The closed and automated cultivation unit itself consists of four layers and is digitally monitored via IoT devices and sensors. Swedish agtech company Swegreen designed the technology and hardware behind it. As well as the digitalized control platform and cloud system which, by using AI, manages and optimizes the crops' growth. Inside the farm, elevators and automated robot arms are used to ease the harvest process.
For more information:
Swegreen
Andreas Dahlin, CEO of Swegreen
andreas.dahlin@swegreen.se
www.swegreen.se